U.S. patent number 4,379,573 [Application Number 06/188,502] was granted by the patent office on 1983-04-12 for business form with removable label and method for producing the same.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Trade Printers, Inc.. Invention is credited to Ronald C. Lomeli, Gary E. Stewart.
United States Patent |
4,379,573 |
Lomeli , et al. |
April 12, 1983 |
Business form with removable label and method for producing the
same
Abstract
A business form having die cut label areas removable therefrom
and an improved method for processing paper sheet substrate from a
continuous supply thereof to produce the same. The method includes
the steps of feeding paper substrate from the continuous supply
thereof into paper processing apparatus for guiding and
transporting the substrate; imprinting a business format on the
paper substrate received by the processing apparatus; adhesively
applying pieces of tape at spaced points on the paper substrate
received by the processing apparatus to form binary areas on the
substrate having greater thickness than the substrate, the binary
areas including a pair of layers, a layer of tape applied in relief
to the substrate, and a layer of substrate corresponding in surface
area to the tape layer; and die cutting one of the layers to form
at least one label area adjacent to and peelable from the other
layer.
Inventors: |
Lomeli; Ronald C. (Phoenix,
AZ), Stewart; Gary E. (Phoenix, AZ) |
Assignee: |
Trade Printers, Inc. (Phoenix,
AZ)
|
Family
ID: |
22693423 |
Appl.
No.: |
06/188,502 |
Filed: |
October 9, 1980 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
428/42.3;
283/81 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B42C
3/00 (20130101); G09F 3/0288 (20130101); B42D
5/027 (20130101); Y10T 428/1495 (20150115) |
Current International
Class: |
B42D
5/00 (20060101); B42D 5/02 (20060101); B42C
3/00 (20060101); G09F 3/02 (20060101); G09F
003/04 () |
Field of
Search: |
;282/23R,11.5A
;283/18,21 ;428/42,43,41 ;40/2R |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Bell; Paul A.
Assistant Examiner: Brown; John S.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Drummond, Nelson & Nissle
Claims
Having described my invention in such terms as to enable those
skilled in the art to understand and practice it, and having
identified the presently preferred embodiments thereof, I
claim:
1. A business form having a die cut label area removable therefrom,
said form including
(a) a sheet of paper having a back side, an imprinted front side
and an outer peripheral edge;
(b) at least one piece of transfer tape including a layer of
adhesive adjacent a layer of backing material and having an outer
peripheral edge, said tape being secured to a limited area on the
back of said paper sheet by contacting said sheet with said layer
of adhesive such that the outer peripheral edge of said piece of
transfer tape generally lies within said outer peripheral edge of
said paper sheet; and
(c) a label area die cut in said sheet of paper above said piece of
transfer tape and having an outer peripheral edge,
(i) the outer peripheral edge of said die cut label generally lying
within the outer peripheral edge of said transfer tape,
(ii) a portion of said business form lying between the peripheral
edge of said die cut label and the peripheral edge of said transfer
tape and including a first portion of said layer of adhesive
sandwiched between a section of said sheet of paper and a section
of the layer of backing material of said transfer tape, and
(iii) a second portion of said layer of adhesive
lying between said label and said layer of backing material of said
transfer tape, and
adhering to said label and separating from said backing material
when said label is peeled away from said backing material, and
said transfer tape being sized such that said first portion of
adhesive in said portion of said business form between the
peripheral edge of said die cut label and the peripheral edge of
said transfer tape is sufficient to maintain said transfer tape in
position on said paper sheet when said label is peeled from said
backing material of said transfer tape.
Description
This invention relates to business forms having die cut label areas
which are removable therefrom and to a method for producing the
same.
More particularly, the invention pertains to a business form which
includes an imprinted paper substrate having transfer tape
detachably adhesively secured thereto and having a removable die
cut area which may be peeled from the transfer tape to form a
label.
In a further respect, the instant invention concerns a method for
producing a business form having die cut label area removable
therefrom in which transfer tape is detachably adhesively secured
to an imprinted paper substrate and in which a portion of the
substrate adhesively secured to the transfer tape is then die cut
to form a removable label area.
In yet another respect, the present invention concerns a method for
producing a business form having die cut label area removable
therefrom in which the imprinting of paper substrate, adhesive
attachment of transfer tape to the substrate, and die cutting of
label area are accomplished in one pass of paper substrate through
a paper processing machine.
Providing business forms with removable labels has become a
widespread practice. Such labels are often imprinted with
information which, when combined with the ability to transfer the
label, facilitates the completion of a particular business
transaction. For instance, a label may be imprinted with the name
and address of the company from which the business form originated
so that a customer can remove the label from the form and then
attach the label to an envelope containing an order being forwarded
to the company. Likewise, the label may be imprinted with
information identifying the customer so that when the label is
attached to an order form processing of the order by the company is
expedited.
These so-called "transfer labels" are actually comprised of two
layers of material. The first or lower layer has a pressure
sensitive adhesive on its bottom surface and an adhesive on its
upper surface which detachably secures the second layer--a paper
label--thereto. Transfer labels are normally applied to business
forms by feeding the forms into a label air machine which blows the
transfer labels from a strip of carrier material toward the forms
so that the pressure sensitive adhesive on the bottom surface of
each label contacts one of the forms.
In many paper manufacturing operations, such as the printing and
assembly of business forms, it is common practice to carry out the
operation in a series of repetitive steps at spaced points along a
continuously moving strip of paper and to then cut the continuous
strip into the size required to form the pages of the business
form. In particular, multi-part business forms are printed and
collated in such fashion and the collated continuous strips of
paper cut into the desired size after the final assembly
thereof.
In this regard, the principal disadvantage of the conventional
label air machine described above is that, in order to apply the
transfer labels, business forms cannot be contiuously passed
through the machine but must essentially be indexed through the
machine one at a time. The usual practice for applying transfer
labels to a continuous strip of business forms is to fold the strip
in zig-zag fashion along transverse lines of weakening formed in
the paper and to then feed the stack of folded paper into the label
air machine. Operation of the label air machine requires that each
individual form in the stack of folded paper be indexed through the
label air machine; i.e., the paper does not continuously move as it
passes through the machine, rather, one segment of paper is pulled
into the machine, the movement of paper momentarily stops while a
label is applied, and then another segment of paper is indexed into
the machine. It has become a common industry practice to feed
stacks of folded paper into the machine instead of pulling the
paper from a roll thereof because the first sheet in a stack can be
glued or attached to the final sheet of the stack of paper being
fed into the machine. This permits the label air machine to be run
continuously. If paper was fed into the machine from a roll, the
machine would have to be shut down when the end of a roll was
reached so that the core of the old roll could be removed and a new
roll installed on the machine.
A further limitation of the label air machine is that the machine
is unable to accurately apply labels in the same position on
identical business forms. The comparative position of labels blown
onto identical business forms by the machine will often vary from
3/16 to 1/4 of an inch. The variance in the positioning of labels
precludes imprinting the entire surface of the label and, as a
consequence, the material to be printed thereon will normally
occupy an area substantially less than the surface area of the
label to compensate for variance in label position. The inability
of the label air machine to consistently place a label in the same
position on identical business forms results in a substantial
amount of unused and wasted label material.
The conventional label air machine is further limited in operation
in that when a plurality of transfer labels or strips are attached
side by side to a paper substrate, there must be a minimum distance
of approximately two inches between any two labels. This particular
limitation rules out the application of a pair of closely spaced
labels to a paper substrate.
The printing of business forms is commonly carried out by feeding
continuous strips of business forms through high-speed presses at
the rate of thousands of copies per hour. To date, a like process
which permits both the imprinting of a paper substrate and
formation of a removable label on the substrate in a "one-pass"
continuous high speed operation has apparently not been utilized.
Instead, the conventional process comprises imprinting a continuous
strip of paper substrate, folding the strip, running a stack of
folded paper through a label air machine to attach the labels,
refolding or rolling the continuous strip of labeled paper leaving
the label air machine, and then collating, cutting or further
imprinting the continuous strips as desired. This process obviously
entails repeated manual handling of the paper and the increased
production costs associated therewith.
Even assuming that a conventional label air machine were able to be
employed in an automated process, three to five percent of the
business forms processed by the machine would not be usable because
the applied labels would be bent, damaged or failed to adhere to
the paper when blown on. In addition, the bi-layered transfer
labels employed generally have an average thickness of seven to
eight thousandths of an inch. When large numbers of labeled forms
are stacked the resulting buildup of label thickness can,
especially when a single label is applied to each form, cause the
paper stack to list, making handling and storage of the paper
awkward.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide a process for
applying labels to a paper substrate which could be automated and
utilized at speeds comparable to the rate at which such forms can
be printed and which would allow a business form to be printed and
provided with a detachable label in a single pass through paper
processing equipment, such that special process steps and manual
handling of business forms which typically bottleneck the overall
paper product manufacturing operation during application of labels
to paper substrate are eliminated.
It would also be desirable to provide a business form with a
removable label which increased the thickness of the paper
substrate a minimal amount.
Therefore, it is a principal object of the invention to provide an
improved business form having a label or labels removable
therefrom.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method for
imprinting and providing a removable label for a business form
which allows a continuously moving paper substrate to be imprinted
and provided with a removable label during a single pass through
paper processing equipment.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method
for providing a paper sheet substrate with a removable label which
adds only a small amount of additional thickness to the paper
substrate so that the build-up of label thickness when processed
forms are stacked for storage is minimized.
Yet another object of the instant invention is to provide a method
for imprinting and providing a paper sheet substrate with a
removable label which results in a minimal number of defective and
unusable business forms after the substrate has been imprinted and
provided with removable label areas.
Still another and more specific object of the invention is to
provide a method for producing business forms which permit a
removable label to be accurately placed in an identical position on
each of a plurality of forms .
These and other, further and more specific objects and advantages
of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from
the following detailed description thereof, taken in conjunction
with the drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a business form provided with a
removable label;
FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of the business form of FIG. 1
illustrating a prior art removable label attached thereto;
FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the business form of FIG. 2 taken
along section line 3--3 thereof;
FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view of the business form of FIG. 1
provided with a removable label in accordance with one embodiment
of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the business form of FIG. 4 taken
along section line 5--5 thereof;
FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a prior art method of
producing the business form of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3; and
FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for producing a
business form having a removable label in accorrdance with another
embodiment of the invention.
Briefly, in accordance with the invention, I provide a method for
processing paper sheet substrate from a continuous supply thereof
to produce business forms having die cut label areas removable
therefrom. The method includes the steps of feeding paper substrate
from the continuous supply into paper processing apparatus which
guides and transports the substrate; imprinting a business format
on the paper substrate received by the processing apparatus;
adhesively applying pieces of tape at spaced points on the paper
substrate received by the processing apparatus to form binary areas
on the substrate having greater thickness than the substrate, the
binary areas including a pair of layers, a first layer of tape
applied in relief to the substrate and a second layer of substrate
corresponding in surface area to the first layer tape; and die
cutting one of the layers to form at least one label area adjacent
to and peelable from the other layer.
Another embodiment of the invention includes a business form having
die cut label area removable therefrom. The business form comprises
an imprinted paper sheet substrate; tape adhesively secured to the
substrate at spaced points thereon to form binary areas on the
substrate having greater thickness than the substrate, the binary
areas including a pair of layers, a first layer of tape applied in
relief to the substrate and a second layer of substrate
corresponding in surface area to the first layer; and die cut label
area in the substrate adjacent to and peelable from the transfer
tape.
Turning now to the drawings, which depict the presently preferred
embodiments of the invention for the purpose of illustrating the
practice thereof and not by way of limitation of the scope of the
invention and in which like reference characters represent similar
elements throughout the several views, FIG. 1 illustrates a
business form generally identified by reference character 11 and
consisting of a paper substrate 11 having printed matter 13 and a
removable label 14 on the face thereof.
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 removable label 14 normally consists of
two layers 15, 16. The bottom surface 18 of layer 15 has a pressure
sensitive adhesive contacting the upper face 17 of substrate 12.
The upper surface 19 of layer 15 is provided with an adhesive which
removably secures layer 16 thereto. When desired layer 16 is peeled
from layer 15 in the direction of arrow A to form a label. Adhesive
on the lower surface 24 of layer 16 permits layer 16 to be affixed
to another paper form. The combined thickness of layers 15, 16 is
approximately seven to eight thousandths of an inch.
A label 14 formed in substrate 12 in accordance with one embodiment
of the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. Upper surface 20
of layer 21 is provided with adhesive which transfers from layer 21
to the bottom surface 25 of substrate 12 when layer 21 is attached
thereto. After layer 21 is adhesively secured to substrate 12 the
substrate 12 is die cut along line 22 to form label 23 which is
peelable from layer 21 in the direction of arrow B. Label 23 may,
due to adhesive transferred thereto from layer 21, be secured to an
ancillary piece of paper. Layer 21 has a thickness of approximately
three thousandths of an inch.
A conventional prior art process for producing the business form of
FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 is illustrated by the flow chart of FIG. 6. A
continuous strip of paper substrate 30 is imprinted with a business
format 31 and folded 32 in a zig-zag fashion along transverse lines
of weakening formed therein. The business forms contained in the
stack of folded paper are indexed one at a time through a label air
machine which applies to labels 14 of FIGS. 2 and 3 to the paper
substrate 12 of form 11. Labeled forms dispensed by the label air
machine are refolded 34. The stack of refolded business forms is
run through a press to imprint 35 data on removable labels 14. The
finished business forms are collated with another strip of paper
substrate or carbon paper, are cut, or are stored as desired.
Application of labels 14 by the label air machine is a relatively
slow process, and the necessity of folding a strip of continuous
forms before and after processing by the label air machine creates
a bottleneck in the overall process of producing business forms 11
having removable labels 14.
As illustrated in FIG. 7, an improved process of the invention
allows paper substrate from a supply of individual sheets or of a
continuous strip thereof to both be imprinted with a business
format and be provided with removable labels during a single pass
through paper process apparatus. In the improved process, paper
substrate 40 from a continuous supply thereof is imprinted 41 with
a business format. Transfer tape is adhesively applied 42 to the
paper substrate 12 to form bi-layer areas along the substrate
comprising an area of transfer tape adhesively secured to an
equivalent adjacent area of the original paper substrate. One of
the pair of layers is die cut 43 to form label area which is
peelable from the adjacent layer. Since the steps of imprinting 41,
die cutting 43 and applying transfer tape 42 can each be carried
out on a rapidly moving sheet of paper, the entire process of
imprinting and providing a removable label for a paper substrate
may be completed during a single pass of the substrate through high
speed paper processing apparatus. The step of imprinting 41 the
substrate may, of course, be performed after application of the
transfer tape or after the substrate is die cut.
A variety of transfer tapes 21 may be applied to substrate 12
during the processing shown in FIG. 7. In the presently preferred
embodiment of the invention surface 20 of tape 21 is provided with
an adhesive which adheres to substrate 12 and separates from the
upper surface 20 of tape 21 when label 23 is peeled off in the
direction of arrow B (see FIG. 5). However, the lower surface 25 of
substrate 12 may be provided with a smooth surface of hardened
adhesive which becomes tacky on contact with water. In this case,
the adhesive on surface 20 would continue to adhere to tape 21 when
label 23 was removed. In some instances it might also be desirable
for the surface 20 of transfer tape 21 to have a pressure sensitive
carbon layer which would reproduce information imprinted on the
upper surface 26 of label 23.
Removable labels similar to the labels pictured in FIGS. 2 and 3
can be attached by a label air machine to the same position on a
plurality of business forms only to within a variance of from 3/16
to 1/4 of an inch. In contrast, when the process of FIG. 7 is
utilized labels can be die cut at an identical position on a
plurality of forms with a variance in position which is
substantially less. The improved accuracy of label placement
inherent in die cutting the label allows a larger area of the label
surface to be imprinted, reducing the amount of label material
required.
A further benefit of the process of FIG. 7 is that when one of the
layers 21, 12 is die cut to form removable label area, if a
plurality of labels is formed, the labels may be closely adjacent
one another. There is no minimum spacing requirement similar to
that earlier described in the label air machine. In addition, the
number of defective and unusable business forms produced during the
process of FIG. 7 is less than the accepted industry standard of
3-5% of total production for the label air machine.
* * * * *